Renewable biological source materials such as plants and wood comprise various biological polymers. For example, carbohydrates (or saccharides) are a major component of wood. Chemically, carbohydrates are simple organic compounds that are aldehydes or ketones with a plurality of hydroxyl groups, usually one on each carbon atom that is not part of the aldehyde or ketone functional group. Carbohydrates are comprised of repeating monomeric units termed monosaccharides which can link together to form polymers referred to as polysaccharides and oligosaccharides, which are present in hemicellulose recovered from renewable raw materials such as wood.
Carbohydrates play many different roles in biological systems. They not only supply energy and structural material to the host animal, but their unique chemical characteristics provide a wealth of other functions. Carbohydrates that resist digestion in the small intestine but are fermentable in the large intestine have been shown to have added health benefits.
Adhesion of pathogenic organisms to host tissues is required for the initiation of most infectious diseases. For many bacteria, this adhesion is mediated by lectins present on the surface of the infectious organism that binds to complementary carbohydrates on the surface of the host tissues. Carbohydrates which are recognized by the bacterial surface lectins can bind to the pathogen by occupying the receptor site. This prevents the pathogen from attaching to the gastrointestinal mucosal cells, thus preventing colonization of the intestinal epithelium. Antibiotics have long been used to help control pathogens, but the effects of these agents on beneficial bacteria, and the development of antibiotic resistance, has created a need to identify alternatives which can reduce the incidence of pathogenic infections.